Entertainment For Lively Minds
I'm the £15 guy in this financial climate. What should I buy and why? And where from?
Posted by Uncle Wheaty on 14 January 2010 - 8:58pm.
I am open to any suggestions and would specifically (not pacifically - see earlier thread) like to discover some music I haven't heard before.
I bought the best of Fela Kuti as a result of a thread on here last year and was very happy to discover his music.
So over to you...
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If you're an Ipod chappy
Can't recommend Emusic highly enough - you can get Fela Kuti and the new Vampire weekend for a modicum of the CD cost.
Beat me to it
eMusic is very good value.
I lasted...
...exactly one month on emusic. It's great value if you're benefiting from an old deal and paying tuppence a track, but for newbies, the deals aren't that special.
I Get 75 Downloads for £15
Which is around £2 an album (I assume 10 tracks per album). Its not good on albums that have a load of extra tracks but its fine for normal albums.
Taken fom the emusic website today:
Our most popular Music plans are:
* * eMusic Monthly Basic
o • 24 Song Downloads per month
o • £9.99 per month
* * eMusic Monthly Plus
o • 35 Song Downloads per month
o • £13.99 per month
* * eMusic Monthly Premium
o • 50 Song Downloads per month
o • £17.99 per month
Not such great deals.
That's still only £0.36 - £0.41 per track.
Round about about half what you would pay on most other sites.
So you're happy...
...paying twice as much as subscribers who signed up before the price rises?
See, the niggling feeling I have is that new subscribers are subsidizing older ones, which really pisses me off.
Blimey
I didn't know the prices had gone up. I'm paying 11.99 for 50 downloads a month (24p per track).
This month I caught up with some Eddie Izzard / Ross Noble stuff and the first album by The Answer. It was Tom Waits' Real Gone and Disc 2 of Orphans... last month.
Fair point
But better than the other way round I suppose. Long term customers being rewarded with held prices. I wish Sky would do the same.
I'm simply making the point
that their prices are lower than some other download sites. That sounds like good value to me.
I'm not sure whether they ever had tracks for tuppence, but the fact that the prices are higher now than they once were does not make them poor value. The only comparison worth making is with other current download costs.
Have you heard...
The Imagined Village? 'Uniting English tradition with 21st century multiculturalism'. New album just out 'Empire & Love'. I picked it up in Fopp Glasgow for £9 - excellent. The band is the idea of Simon Emmerson & includes the likes of Sheema Mukherjee (sitar), Martin & Eliza Carthy, Johnny Kalsi (Dhol drummer), Chris Wood and others. Billy Bragg and Paul Weller have had involvement in the past so quite a pedigree.
I am going to see them in the Old Fruitmarket Glasgow tomorrow night as part of the Celtic Connections festival which started today.
It's rather marvellous
Arrived yesterday via the South American river. A vast improvement on their first album - lovely stuff!
Bobby Charles?
See a couple of threads over ... yours for £6.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bobby-Charles/dp/B001BS4R9U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s...
A few favourites
Alice Coltrane - A Monastic Trio or Ptah the EL Daoud : £8ish on Amazon. Spooky eastern-influenced jazz.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ptah-El-Daoud-Alice-Coltrane/dp/B000024RFS/ref=s...
Louis Armstrong Hot Fives & Sevens - it sounds nothing like the trad jazz that was squared-off following it - this is wild, rocking and free!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Louis-Armstrong-Seven-Recordings/dp/B000068...
OR download Pharaoh Sanders "Black Unity" - 69p!! 39 minutes of brilliant invention
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Unity/dp/B001KEK8SO/ref=sr_shvl_album_1?ie...
An arrow for Alice Coltrane
.
Thanks to you and the
Thanks to you and the original link to Pharoah Sanders - Black Unity - the best 69p I've ever spent... it filled most of the hour delay on Virgin Trains last week... in the busy world of today, long commutes are the best chance I have to listen to longer pieces.. Black Unity was a great recommendation...
Great!
Glad you enjoyed it.
Many years ago when I bought it on CD, it took me a few listens to get all the way through it - I grew up on 7" singles. I'd heard a bit of Black Unity and liked it - but once I had listened all the way through it the first time I played it again and again, a 5 hour car journey never to forget!
At 69p it's incredible value.
Another satisfied customer
For that price it is a steal. As someone actually likes stuff like Sun Ra, this was an Immediate download for me. Thanks for the heads up hombre.
Love your subject line
Love your subject line actually. Whole topic in itself - to what extent has everyone trimmed their entertainment spending in the last couple of difficult years - has the £50 man reined it in?! Maybe another time ...
Fifteen quid?
You jammy bastard
'Gonna Take A Miracle' Laura Nyro and Labelle
Re-issue out in a couple of weeks, £6.98 on amazon
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gonna-Take-Miracle-Laura-Nyro/dp/B002XMGJJ4/ref=...
- Laura Nyro, Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendrix, Sarah Dash, an all-star soul ensemble, Gamble and Huff producing, the songs and sounds of doowop, Philadelphia, Motown, gospel, the Brill Building...
Good call!
Thanks for spotting that this was about to be re-issued, it's one of my all time favourites. I rarely pre-order from Amazon, but this is a no-brainer, especially at that price. Superb.
I heart Laura
and that album is one of her best. If fact I am going to dig out the title track NOW!
Hang on a mo'...
I smell a rat.
I've just returned from work. I knew I already had this album on CD somewhere, and I've just dug it out. The copy I already own is a 2002 release on Columbia Legacy (i.e. Sony), with EXACTLY the same 4 bonus tracks, and it was reputedly remastered especially for the release by one Mark Wilder of Sony. The liner notes are by someone called Amy Linden. (It's still in stock at Amazon too, and it's a quid cheaper than the Rev-Ola version.)
It's therefore allegedly NOT the same remastering as the forthcoming Rev-Ola release that the good Captain mentions, in as much as the Amazon details quote different names for those doing the remastering ('Joe Foster and Norman Blake'), and writing the liner notes ('Mr. Duglas T. Stewart').
Now I'm all in favour of great material getting re-released, but...
I've cancelled my pre-order.
This doesn't change it's being a perfect selection as a recommended purchase, because it's a fabulous piece of work. You only need one good copy of it though.
I'm confused.
Should I get the Sony version instead?
Can't help you with that one, I'm afraid,
as I won't be buying the 'new' one to compare them. So it may well be that the Rev-Ola remaster is blindingly brilliant. I just HATE it when they re-re-re-master and re-issue stuff every bloody time the clocks change.
Between you and me, though, I doubt if it's really any different; the Sony one I already have from 2002 sounds pretty damn fine to my ears, and it's always been a solid gold classic album anyway.
My advice would be to either buy a nice vinyl original (unlikely) or just get the new one, as it's easy to do so, and there's only a quid in it anyway. Either way, you will NOT be disappointed.
sorry, posted twice
(red-faced whistling)
If you can allow yourself...
...to spend an extra £2, then I would recommend these two;
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Courage-Others-Midlake/dp/B002USUJCE/ref=sr_1_1?...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-key...
Midlake have had their fair share of plaudits in these parts so there's no need to elaborate. The Soft Pack have short, choppy pop songs in the style of Buzzcocks, Modern Lovers, that type of thing. Controversially they used to be called The Muslims, but changed the name because of "ignorant and racist comments". They're great and are worth investigating.
Both albums are due 1st February, I think.
Second hand is the new black
I am onto Amazon resellers and eBay all the time. From literally the shirt on my back to the CD in my stereo and the book by my bed.
Get some rawk in yer lugholes!
All three can be yours for about £15 courtesy of Amazon.
A bit of Welsh?
These two songs are on a triple compilation CD I bought in Aberystwyth. If you don't fancy a trip there, it can be bought from sain.wales.com.
If you want a bit of change from your £15, the Welsh Rare Beat collection from Sain includes Meic and other artists from the 60s and 70s - a bit of folk, pop, prog, psychedelic and choral. I bought it in Piccadilly Records, Manchester so it should be in some record shops.
Tom Waits
the answer is always Tom Waits
You can get a CD of "Rain Dogs" - one of the best albums ever made and its predecessor "Swordfishtrombones" for about £3 each on Amazon marketplace
you will not be disappointed - will leave money over for something else as well
Rain Dogs - http://open.spotify.com/album/0q6s9CZk6aeWJu4IoglEVH
He is all you'll ever need again.
Eels - End of Times
Out on Monday and getting very good reviews. Would seem to be a return to melodic forlorn stuff he does best.